502 



PLOVER TRIBE. 



vegetation of marshy places, from which they rise suddenly when flushed, with 

 the well-known staich, but without much whirring of the wings, and dart off with 

 lightning-like rapidity. Of the flight of Wilson's snipe Dr G. B. Grinnell 

 observes that " most birds when they rise from the ground appear to have some 

 definite idea of the direction in which they wish to go, and having started in a 

 particular line of flight, keep to it, unless turned by some alarming apparition 

 before them. Not so with the snipe, however ; he springs from the ground utter- 

 ing his curious squeaking cry, darts a few yards one way, changes his mind, and 

 turns almost at right angles to his original course ; then he appears to think he 



A FAMILY OF WILSON'S SNIPE. 



has made a mistake, and now alters his direction, and so twists off, ' angling ' 

 across the meadow until he is out of gunshot. He then either rises high in the 

 air and swings about for awhile, looking for a desirable spot to alight, or else 

 settles down into a straight, swift course, which he keeps up until his fright is over, 

 or he has come to a spot which is to his liking, when he throws himself to the 

 earth, and with a peculiar toss of his wings checks his progress, and alights." 

 Fortunately for the sportsman in India, where the common snipe is more abundant 

 than elsewhere, these birds do not generally indulge in such vagaries, but fly 

 straight away. The writer has, however, occasionally seen the common species 

 dart, although the pintail does so but very rarely. Unless flushed, snipe are but 

 rarely seen on the wing during the day ; and their chief feeding-time, like their 

 migration, is by night. In Europe snipe are essentially solitary birds, but this can 

 scarcely be said to be the case in India, where a " whisp " of from six to a dozen 



